The Man Who Sold the World
by Your Iron Lung
Summary: In which Finas meets David Bowie.


Our meeting happened just as the song he would later write implied it did; we passed upon the stair.

The minute he laid eyes on me, I could see that he knew that I was not entirely human. A fear flew behind his mismatched eyes (eyes that reminded me so much of Casimiro's own)- a fear I recognized reflected in the faces of my victims whose lives I had taken in the past. He had no just cause for alarm, however, as I was in no mood to kill, but I didn't expect him to realize this. To him I was a threat, and so I sought to remedy the situation by easing his fears.

"We're friends." I said. I had no other means of conveying how passive I was in that moment, and my choice of words clearly surprised the man, as he would mention them later in the song he was to write.

His surprise gave way to confusion, and that in turn diluted into a weary form of relief, for he laughed and nodded gratefully- even going so far as to return the gesture by stepping forward to politely shake my hand.

We spoke briefly before coming to the mutual understanding that a stairwell was perhaps not the best of places to be holding the kind of conversation he wished to instigate. He was very curious about my person, and my unearthly situation seemed to be a topic of great interest for him. So it was that he invited me to his abode for a drink, though the invitation was more a courtesy to my kind than an actual notion to indulge in alcoholic refreshments.

I was quick to realize that this man was incredibly charming; he was genuinely intrigued with my being and made an honest effort to understand how it was I came to exist. He was very polite, and I couldn't help but entertain him in his own home, if only for a little while.

"Did you sell your soul?" he asked, brown and blue eyes glinting with excitement as if he could not believe this was happening. "You seem like a generous, docile man; how can you live to kill? In the fashion that you do?"

"I did not sell my soul." I answered calmly; my eyes fixed easily upon his. I adored them, but I do not think he was comfortable with the way I held eye contact. He would come to mention how I 'gazed a gazeless stare' in his song, and I realize now I must have unnerved him. It was evident from the look on his face that he was struggling to peaceably maintain the gaze, and so I blinked and averted my eyes to relieve the pressure. "I did not sell anything so symbolic as that. At the moment of my supernatural conception, I had not been aware I'd 'sold' anything at all, as you put it."

"You make it sound as though you realize now that you have?"

This young man, David- as he'd introduced himself- was very clever. I found that it was easy to talk to him, as my words seemed to flow naturally toward him in a manner most pleasing. He was enthralled with what I had to say, and likewise I was enamored with his friendly disposition.

"Perhaps." I answered ambiguously. "Something much more tangible than a soul was lost when I fell folly to this curse."

He was rapt with attention, eyes wide as he inclined his head to encourage me forward with my tale without interruption. David really was very polite.

"The world as I knew it." I continued curtly, settling my eyes upon him once again, and yet David still said nothing, hoping I'd expand on the thought. "My life, the people I knew and the things I had in store for a mortal future…all those things and more had to be sold and forfeit for this 'life' I have now."

"Why'd you do it? Were you not content?"

"I was very much content with the life I was living. I had a loving wife and had plans to start a family, but they all fell through when I was tricked into making the deal that had me forego it all."

"Tricked?"

"Yes, I was deceived in the ugliest of fashions to become what I am."

"How did that come to pass?" He inquired, a confusion made apparent on his handsome young face. "Not to be rude, but you seem fairly intelligent. I don't understand how a man of your caliber could have possibly been duped, especially with so much at risk."

I couldn't suppress the grin and laugh that followed. He raised his brow and accompanied the gesture with a smile of his own before I calmed myself and continued on.

"He was cunning. He'd devised a plan and patiently waited to enact each step with incredible precision to ensure I would succumb to his plan."

He didn't press on this bit of information, as I recall maybe having drifted off into a solemn-faced form of silence. David was silent as he contemplated this bit of information before he pressed forward with a new line of conversation.

"With all that time at your disposal, what do you do to pass the time? I imagine with such a limitless amount of time, you must do a fair bit of travelling."

"I do." I said with a nod of agreement. "My partner and I roamed for years and years before we decided that the world offered us little to no consolation for what we'd lost in our transformation."

"So what're you doing now?"

"Nothing that would be of any interest to a rock star." I teased with a slight grin, to which he laughed.

We parted then as acquaintances with nothing more to be shared between us. Although before we went our separate ways, the issue of a vampire's humanity did come up. We talked about this in great detail, and I believe it both amazed and frightened him to know that at any time a creature such as myself could lose himself completely. I assured him that neither my partner nor I had lost control in any recent amount of time, to which he responded that he was relieved in that knowledge. He truly was a very considerate fellow.

"It'd be a shame to see a man like you lose such an important part of himself."

We got along marvelously, but we did not keep in contact after we left. What else was there for a mortal man of his stature and standing to do with an ageless being such as myself?

Even though I was not involved with the music scene that David produced songs for, I happened to catch wind of his song about me when Casimiro brought it to my attention. He'd said it'd sounded like something I had been involved with and wanted to know how exactly I had been in contact with the man who'd written it.

Upon listening to the song, I smiled. It was entitled 'The Man Who Sold the World', and I couldn't help but feel bemused that he'd taken the time and effort to write about me in the way that he did.

Casimiro often bragged about all the people he'd met and the subsequent songs that were written about him from them, but I consider myself to be a much more humble and considerate man who was above such frivolities. I told my partner that the song merely had some eerie similarities, and left it at that.

I may have been the man who sold the world, but I am much more careful when it comes to guarding private moments that have been shared between friends.


End file.
